EPA is way too indecisive about Hudson cleanup: Editorial

Hundreds of people held a rally in Mural Square Park ahead of the EPA's informational session on its cleanup of the Hudson River. They voiced support of reducing the toxic polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, from the river and asked the EPA to provide answers to their questions. Video by Jack Howland/Poughkeepsie Journal
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A view of the Hudson River with the Walkway Over the Hudson State Park and Mid-Hudson Bridge on the horizon on Feb. 27, 2018. (Photo: Patrick Oehler/Poughkeepsie Journal)Buy Photo

Last year, the EPA seemed on the verge of deeming the Hudson River PCB cleanup project “complete,” thus letting General Electric off the hook for further dredging of this devastating pollution.

Fortunately, after much public blowback, the federal Environmental Protection Agency took no such action and instead said it would study the matter further. Nevertheless, this imperative issue lingers. And environmental groups and many elected officials are rightly pushing for the EPA to say the cleanup to date “is not protective of the environment and public health.” In particular, most of them want more dredging rather than seeing the EPA take the view that the river should, at this point, essentially be left to heal itself.

For decades, General Electric dumped PCBs in the water before the practice was banned in the late 1970s. This practice devastated the commercial fishing industry and caused considerable environmental damage to the river.

After years of court battles and government and public pressure, GE finally agreed to dredge parts of the Hudson, taking tainted sediments out along stretches of the river between Fort Edward and Troy. GE says it has spent $1.7 billion on the project, which included creating facilities and a rail spur and road to first process the material and send it to an out-of-state landfill. The company did that for about six years. But studies have shown certain parts of the Hudson River still have unacceptable levels of PCB pollution. And even the EPA concedes it could take 55 years or more before all species of fish in the river are clean enough to eat once a week.

The EPA is supposed to be the national guardian of the environment. How could this time frame be acceptable?

Just as bad, both federal and state officials sat idly by when General Electric began dismantling its PCB processing site in Fort Edward, even though environmental groups and plenty of others argued it should remain in place because further dredging is needed.

Hayley Carlock, director of environmental advocacy at Scenic Hudson, and others have rightly pointed out that the EPA can already assess GE had not reached its cleanup goals based on existing samples and information. And DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos has said,“Surface sediment sample data that we’ve collected and shared with EPA is clear — the job of cleaning up the river is far from done.”

Yet, indefensibly, the EPA has done nothing. Meanwhile, three other agencies — the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — have to make their own assessment of the harm to the natural resources in and along the river.

The sooner more cleanup occurs, the quicker the river will be nursed back to health. Waiting didn’t make sense decades ago. It doesn’t make sense now.

Opinion Engagement Editor John Penney wrote this editorial on behalf of The Poughkeepsie Journal Editorial Board. Email him at jpenney@gannett.com; follow him on Twitter at @johnpenneynews.